The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.

DevelopmentBetween the 1920s and the outbreak of the Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme. As the name of the latter suggests, as well as a "basic" service programmed from London, the Regional Programme included a large measure of additional, alternative or rescheduled programming originating in six regions. Although the programmes attracting the greatest number of listeners tended to appear on the National, the two services were not streamed – that is, they did not attempt to appeal to different audiences; instead, they appealed to a single audience but provided a choice of programming.

Broadcasting House - photo by Bill Ross

World War IIOn 1 September 1939, the BBC merged the
National and the Regional Programmes into one national service from
London. The reasons given for this included the need to prevent enemy
aircraft from using differentiated output from the Regional Programme's
transmitters as navigational beacons. To this end, the former "regional"
transmitters were synchronised in chains on (initially) two
frequencies, 668 and 767 kHz, with an additional chain of low powered
transmitters (known as "Group H") on 1474 kHz appearing later. Under
this arrangement "regional" broadcasting in its pre-war form was no
longer feasible; however, much of the programming on the new service was
gradually decentralised to the former "regional" studios (because of
the risks from enemy attack/bombing/invasion in London) and broadcast
nationally.

The new service was named the Home Service, which was
also the internal designation at the BBC for domestic radio broadcasting
(the organisation had also had Television Service and Overseas Service
departments).

Post-warOn 29 July 1945, the BBC resumed its
previous regional structure and began "streaming" its radio services.
Following the wartime success of the Forces and General Forces
Programmes, light entertainment was transferred to the new BBC Light
Programme, whilst 'heavier' programming – news, drama and talks –
remained on the now-regionalised Home Service.However, popular light
programming from the former national Home Service – such as ITMA –
remained on the new Home Service; similarly, some speech programming of
the type pioneered by the Forces Programmes – the newly-launched Woman's
Hour being very much in this mould – remained on the new Light
Programme.

RegionsThe Home Service had seven regions.London
and South East England was served by the "basic Home Service", which was
not considered a region by the BBC and acted as the sustaining service
for the other regions.A shortage of frequencies meant that the
Northern Ireland Regional Home Service was treated as part of the North
Regional Home Service, as the Northern Ireland service used the same
frequency as a North service booster. The Northern Ireland service was
separated from the North region on 7 January 1963.

The Criterion Theatre in London became the base for the BBC's Empire
Entertainments Unit. As well as working here, the staff ate and slept, sleeping on makeshift beds as broadcasts were actually going out from the theatre stage. The Radio Theatre became a dormitory, wherein a curtain was used to separat
the male and female sleeping quarters.

The London blitz began on 7 September 1940, and some time after, Broadcasting House took its first hit. A delayed action
bomb crashed through a window on the 7th floor, and came to rest two floors below in the music library. About 45 minutes later, it exploded, killing seven people. Bruce Belfrage was reading the
news at the time, and his microphone picked up the sound of the blast.
Bruce, covered in dust and soot, nevertheless, read on.

A month later, Adderley Park transmitter in
Birmingham was destroyed, and staff in nearby a shelter were killed. Two
weeks later a landmine exploded outside Broadcasting House, causing
more damage. And on 10 May 1941, the worst night of the Blitz, bombs
destroyed all the buildings on the eastern side of the Broadcasting
House island site, killing a member of staff. The Queens Hall, venue of
the Proms, was hit and destroyed the same night, claiming further lives
including one member of staff, while across London the BBC's Maida Vale
studios took a direct hit.

Thorough preparations were made for Bristol to
become the centre of operations if broadcasting from London became
impossible. There were plans to build an emergency base in a disused
railway tunnel. Areas of the tunnel would serve as dressing rooms,
studios, control rooms, and a canteen, storing three months food
supplies. The tunnel was declared structurally sound after being tested
by the entire BBC symphony orchestra (100 instrumentalists) at full
blast.